Posts tagged blogging best practices

If Brian Clark and Darren Rowse (some of the biggest names in blogging) started their blogs today and followed their own advice, they would fail.

It’s tempting to look at how successful people have made their reputations and copy their techniques. You may even get some results.

But what made them successful was originality. If you want to get results that other people haven’t, you have to do things that have never been done before. In order to do that you have to take everything you’ve learned and adapt it to your unique skill sets. You are not going to stand out by simply regurgitating what you’ve read elsewhere.

Experimentation

In my very first conversation with Mark Schaefer, he said something to me that has been fundamental to how I approach the online world. “The courage to experiment is at the heart of originality, and originality is the heart of success on the social web.”

The beauty of the social web is that experimentation is cheap and, in many cases, free. You just have to have the courage to do it.

I look at other blog posts and advice I read as ingredients in a dish that I’m cooking. If you want to create mouth-watering content that makes your audience salivate, you have to mix up those ingredients and add your own flavor.

Best Practices Might Be Hurting You

Everyday I watch so many brilliant people with invaluable life and business experience come to the blogosphere and approach it all as if they’re starting from scratch. You may not know much about blogging and social media, but if we could look inside your head and your heart, I think we’d find they are bursting with insights and wisdom that you may take for granted. Many of us remain blind to our greatest strengths. We take what we already know for granted!

As a result we become dependent on repetitive “best practices” and formulas. We forget that our most natural abilities give us the greatest opportunity to be outstanding in a world full of noise. I’ve had conversations with hundreds of bloggers, authors and entrepreneurs and if i have learned anything, it is that there is no one formula for success. Just because it’s a best practice, it doesn’t mean it’s best for you.

Originality is Underrated

I’m always a bit irked when somebody who is new to the blogosphere starts a blog about blogging or social media. It’s such a tragedy that leads to the death of their own authenticity before they even start the journey. What makes any blog unique or interesting is the person behind it. That’s why it’s essential to infuse your personality into everything you do. What makes any blog memorable is the author’s ability to invoke emotion in their readers and tell a good story.

If you’ve been following formulas, best practices, and scripts, and your results have been less than stellar, mix things up a bit. Try something you’ve never tried. Try something no one has ever tried. Start by breaking one of the so called “rules” of successful blogging. You might become the next big thing.

When I started blogging, I was determined to build a powerful online presence around my personal brand. I conjured Rambo-like courage and grit. Grrrr.

After a year of pure sweat and daily commitment, I was not gaining any traction. It was frustrating.

But when at the very moment I began to experiment with visual storytelling, things took off.

This revelation is an example of broader communication trend in how we spread ideas online.

Why the visual marketing is happening (and what it means to you)

Whether it’s Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, people love showing and sharing images online. And it’s not only the “normal” crowd. In the tech and marketing world, it’s infographics and cartoon-based marketing campaigns that get spread just as fanatically.

But please don’t dismiss this as a fad. This is WAY deeper than that. Social networks like Pinterest may rise or fade, but visual storytelling has been with us for thousands of years and will continue to evolve.

It really is a progression (bitter tongues may call it a regression) of how we consume content. Just like Shakespeare’s literature feels stiff and indigestible by today’s reading standards, so will purely text-based content in the near future.

The almighty Internet has turned us into ADD weasels with the attention spans of gold fishes, and that means we want easy-to-consume, straight-to-the-point information. Not dumbing it down — you can be witty and sharp as a blade — but you have to present your content in a brain-friendly manner if you want to make it spread today.

An example from my personal experience

I created a visual, cartoonish branding guide called “The Outstander.” To promote it online, I uploaded a 20 preview slideshow to Slideshare. 24 hours later, it was featured on their homepage, attracted over 65,000 views … and it even produced some new commissions.

When I asked people why it’s so popular, they all said it was my cartoons paired with the short, witty statements. And these people aren’t die-hard comic geeks — they are a traditional B2B and B2C audience.

Visual marketing is Jedi-powerful. It can dramatically help you sell your products and ideas online.

Visualize your brand with high quality, original photographs, even if you’re in the B2B niche. No HORRENDOUS stock photos of tooth-paste-ad-style-smiling blondes with headsets. No. I mean real, well-shot photos of your team, preferably presenting it in an authentic and genuine way.

Make stats sexy. Whether you want to spread data and,stats internally in your company or publicly, using infographics is a sure-fire way to make people ENJOY consuming stats and it encourages them to share the information.

Be stunning. Go for beautiful product shots. I took special care with creating my visual branding guide, giving it a glossy 3D cover shot. My customers said it played a vital part in their buyer’s decision. Stunning product shots increase sales, even for digital products.

Cut to the point. Visual marketing also means you have to change the way you treat language. Concise and effective text rules over fluff and elaboration overkill. Pretend you’re paying a fine for every excess word and sentence you include!

Use visual storytelling in your slideshow presentation. One idea per slide, packaged concisely in 1-3 sentences with support of a striking, relatable image. Check the popular slideshows on the Slideshare homepage for effective examples.

Yeah, I know it’s a lot of work. But the standards of content (sharing) keep surging onward. Text overload is passé.

If you’re fighting for attention, give your audience some eyecandy and cut through the clutter. Do you have some favorite examples of this?

Mars Doriandescribes himself as a creative marketeer with a moon-melting passion for human potential and technology. You can follow his adventures atwww.marsdorian.com/

If you have a company blog, you’re probably dying to drum up a few comments that can lead to a community. yet established bloggers have some surprisingly diverse views on the value of commenting and engagement.

Gini Dietrich revved up an interesting debate last week with her examination of blog commenting strategies but I think some important points were missed and I’d like to add my voice to the discussion.

Gini identified three blog comment “camps” …

No one comments.

The blogger leaves the comments open for everyone to debate, argue, or agree with one another, but the blogger rarely responds;

The blogger replies to every comment left on his or her blog post

… and she concludes that none of them are necessarily a predictor of success. There are widely-read blogs in all categories. Her position, and I agree, is that it’s your blog and you can do anything you want with it.

Mitch Joel responded with a post called the Disease Called Blogging and explained his own interesting position on blog commenting:

I don’t think that the blog comments are my responsibility. It’s not a dialogue between the blogger and the reader … I have the spotlight already. The blog comments are your space to shine. The blog comments are not about me and how I respond.

As I perused the posts and the many ensuing comments, there were two big points that I think have been overlooked.

Comments create community, community creates benefits. The community here on {grow} has become an essential part of my business and personal life. Through the blog community, I have made great friends and business partners. I’ve found a group of people who are interested enough in me to maybe even hire me, buy one of my books, or ask me to speak at their event. I’ve hired people from the blog community, provided referrals, and provided help and counsel. The business benefits of blogging have been incredible.

Point number one: If you are writing a blog, why don’t you want to have a supportive community? How can you create a community if you don’t engage? Engaging just makes good business sense.

It’s not just a comment. It’s a gift. Nearly everyone I know would describe their lives somewhere between “busy” and “swamped.” But somehow, each day dozens of people take some of their time — life’s most precious commodity — and devote it to me and this community through the form of a blog comment. Wow. That is just so humbling. I never, ever take a blog comment for granted. What a gift.

Point number two: A comment is an amazing gift of somebody’s time and talent. How can you simply ignore that?

For these reasons, I try to respond to every comment, even if it is a simple “thank you.” Sometimes it’s at 1 in the morning, sometimes it is a day or two late, but I do try to respond. It’s not easy, but it’s important that I show you gratitude and respect.

If you’re a blogger, do you recall the wonder and excitement of the first comment you ever received? Did you respond? Of course you did. I still feel that excitement every day and I hope I never get to the point where I take my community for granted. if I do, you have my permission to give me a swift kick in the ass.

I can’t promise responses on every single post or every single comment (especially if it is simply people nodding in agreement), but I wanted to explain the reasons behind my commenting philosophy.

I received the coolest email the other day. One of our {grow} community members, Raman Minhas of the U.K., wrote about his struggle over FOUR YEARS to get any traction for his blog — and then finally, it worked! I loved his inspirational story because I think it reflects the pattern of emotional turmoil many of us go through as bloggers. See if you agree …

By {grow} Community Member Raman Minhas

I would like to share my difficult journey as a blogger.

Hope

Four years ago, I started writing about the industry I worked in, biotech. I dutifully wrote about commercial issues affecting the business and my frustrations of the complex R&D process (a new drug can take up to 10 years and over $1 billion to develop).

I worked hard to provide insightful posts that I would “push” to my network of around 1,000 email subscribers each month. These folks had not necessarily “opted in” for my blog, but since the unsubscribe rate was always less than 0.5%, I figured it was OK. It also seemed like a good way to stay in touch. I was getting around 300 hits per month, but there was NO organic growth of my readership no matter how hard I worked. After a few years, I felt like I was spinning my wheels.

Disenchantment

Without any positive feedback,, the blogging process became wearisome and I came to dread the “time of month” to write. When I was at a very low point, I was inspired by Mark’s post, “Ten reasons to blog – even if nobody reads it.” That kept me going for a while but I still wasn’t happy. I had to find a way to push through these blogging barriers or it could not last. So after a couple of years of struggling, I performed an internal review last summer and decided to re-focus on a more interesting topic, medtech. A subtle change, but I’d previously spent six years as an emergency room MD in the UK and was more comfortable with medtech (devices, diagnostics, IT) than the abstract chemistry of new potential drugs.

Re-focus and renewal

With a clarification of my niche, my focus became much clearer. I found I could write more easily and many more topics came to mind. Writing finally became enjoyable! Through the medtech theme, I was also able to connect to my interests in entrepreneurship and value investing. This was such a breakthrough. Slowly, the page hits began to grow — perhaps readers gauged more passion and a renewed sense of energy in my content? And the blog was starting to get NOTICED. I was invited to present at an industry networking event on the use of blogging in our industry. This was a small audience (around 60) but highly relevant. It was a milestone for me!

Finding my voice

Slowly I was finding my blogging “voice” and with this positive feedback, my confidence grew. I decided I needed to work on being more consistent and that I needed to grow my engaged network of readers. As my blogging changed, my audience changed too. I was now getting picked up by important medtech CEOs and investors. I decided that to grow the blog I needed to write at least weekly. This felt daunting.

Finding the time

Here was another barrier. Would I have the time to keep this up? Would I have enough to write about? I decided that I needed to make the time and this needed to be central to my business. My wife and I have been blessed with two wonderful boys: one is 4 yrs old and the other is just 11 weeks old (sleepless nights). But we decided together that I was going to go for it and I learned to make the time and started posting weekly, without much trouble.

Traction

This new consistency seems to be working. I can see the page views and readership grow! By the end of last month, the blog got its highest number of monthly hits ever — over 800. I was energized! And through the first two weeks of this month, I’m on a pace to exceed 1,000 hits. Along the way, I have also been working on the look and feel of the blog to to reflect the new focus and concerted effort.

Part of my strategy to attract a meaningful and engaged audience was to connect to people on Twitter. Although I’ve been on Twitter since 2010, I had not been very active and only had a handful of followers. I became a disciple of The Tao of Twitter and it is paying off. By January I hit 200 followers and my quality Twitter audience has now reached 350 just a few months later.

The Pay-off!

The connections I am making through Twitter and my blog are remarkable. Here are a few of my recent social media victories:

Through these social media channels alone I was asked to attend an important two-day conference and moderate a panel on commercializing medtech. This is fantastic exposure for me and my business. Another breakthrough! To be authentically helpful, I am using my social media channels to give the conference exposure. I’m helping the organizers with sourcing medtech CEOs from my own network for other panels in the conference. It’s a win-win-win for the conference organisers, medtech CEOs, and me.

One of my recent posts, “8 Lessons from Medtech Entrepreneurs…” was picked up by another organization and it was put up on the front page of their website as a news item. Hits to my blog went up. It was so successful, they asked if my posts could be a regular feature on their site. Of course, I said yes. One of the CEOs from a high-profile company commented on one of my posts and subsequently introduced me to one his VC investors (a very influential group within my target audience).

Last week I had coffee with another CEO whose company I’d mentioned in a post. This was only our second meeting and we’re already discussing ways of working together. Things NEVER used to move this fast. It’s as if the blog is a non-invasive, trust-building, relationship booster.

At an event in February this year, I met a medtech CEO for 5 just minutes. But we have had the chance to continue to get to know each other through the blog and emails. He emailed me: “Keep the blog coming, I’m an avid follower.” He’s been in the medtech industry for 25 years. Like I’d have ANYTHING to teach him?!

I have learned a lot along the way. Patiently and steadily build rapport and trust with your readers. Write about your passions. It takes time to find your blogging “voice.” Authentic helpfulness and reciprocity go a long way.

It took me four years, but it is finally working. I have so much yet to learn but I wanted to encourage you to stick with it, have courage and continue to push yourself. If I had quit years ago, I would not be realizing these fantastic benefits today.

Raman Minhas is a medtech enthusiast, working with entrepreneurial companies. He also invests in medtech stocks, using a value based approach, and blogs at Medtech Value Investor.

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